based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …
1870 – Liane De Pougy, Parisian courtesan and nun, born (d.1950).
On her first trip to Paris as a young woman, Natalie Barney walked the fashionable streets of the city studying women while her mother was at a studio studying portrait painting. One day she saw an exquisite woman in the Bois de Boulogne, and, making inquiry, learned that the fur-cloaked beauty was Liane de Pougy, the most famous courtesan in Paris. What she learned as well, was that Liane was a Lesbian just like herself, yet sold herself to men, and at a very high price.
Natalie Barney resolved on the spot that she would rescue Liane de Pougy from her "dreadful life" and make her her own. She even went to the courtesan's house, but was turned away by the maid who informed her that Madame never rose before eleven. Just then Natalie received the news that her father wanted her to return to America, where she was to make her debut. Undaunted, she swore that she would return someday to Paris and take Liane de Pougy, whom she had only once glimpsed, as her lover. And she did.
De Pougy's affair with Barney is recorded in her novel Idylle Saphique, published around 1901. In 1899, Barney presented herself at de Pougy's residence in a page costume and announced that she was a "page of love" sent by Sappho. Although de Pougy was one of the most famous women in France at the time, constantly sought after by wealthy and titled men, Barney's audacity charmed and seduced her. The two were said to have had deep feelings for one another for the remainder of their lives.
De Pougy was born Anne Marie Chassaigne in La Flèche, Sarthe, France, the daughter and raised in a nunnery. At the age of 16, she ran off with Armand Pourpe, a naval officer, marrying because she was pregnant. The baby was named Marco Pourpe, and his mother was, in her own opinion 'a terrible mother'. 'My son was like a living doll given to a little girl'. She would have preferred the baby to be a girl 'because of the dresses and the curly hair'. (Marco grew up to volunteer as an airman in WWI and was killed on 2 December 1914 near Villers-Brettoneux.)
When Armand Pourpe's naval career led him to a billet in Marseilles, Anne-Marie took a lover, the Marquis Charles de MacMahon. When her husband found them in bed together he shot her with a revolver, wounding her on the wrist. Deciding to leave her husband, Anne Marie sold her rosewood piano to a young man who paid 400 francs cash for the instrument. Within an hour, Anne Marie was on her way to Paris, leaving her infant son with his father, who in turn sent his son to live with the boy's grandparents, in Suez.
With the failure of her marriage, Anne Marie began dabbling in acting and prostitution and it is now known that she was a heavy user of both cocaine and opium.
She began her career as a courtesan with the Countess Valtesse de la Bigne, who taught Anne-Marie the profession and whose monumental bed was made of varnished bronze. She made minor appearances in the chorus of Folies-Bergere in Paris in St. Petersburg and cabaret clubs in Rome and the French Riviera.
After moving to Paris, from her position at the Folies she became a noted demimondaine, and a rival of "La Belle Otero". She took her last name from one of her paramours, a Comte or Vicomte de Pougy.
Upon her marriage to Prince Georges Ghika in 1920 de Pougy became Princess Ghika; this marriage ended in separation, though not divorce. Her son's death as an aviator in WWI turned her towards religion and she became a tertiary of the Order of Saint Dominic as Sister Anne-Mary. After a life as the most celebrated courtesan of la belle époque, serving both men and women, Liane de Pougy retired to a convent as Saint Mary Magdalene of Repentence. She became involved in the Asylum of Saint Agnes, devoted to the care of children with birth defects. She died at Lausanne.
1920 – The American novelist and memoirist Donald Windham was born on this date (d.2010). He is perhaps best known for his close friendships with Truman Capote and Tennessee Williams.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Windham moved with his partner Fred Melton, an artist, to New York City in 1939, where he collaborated with Williams on a play, You Touched Me!, based on a D.H. Lawrence story, in 1942. While Windham stayed in New York, Williams wandered between Provincetown, Mass, and other places in search of boys and a quiet retreat in which to write. During those years began a correspondence which Windham collected and finally published in 1977. Although Williams published his own rather disappointing autobiography, the Windham letters, with the novelist's excellent annotations, are the real, albeit incomplete, Tennessee Williams memoir. The letters are dazzling, unguarded, racy, funny, and, above all, revealing of every flattering and not so flattering aspect of the famous playwright over a twenty-five year period. Windham became estranged from Williams in the Seventies after Williams published his Memoirs (1975), which Williams claimed was done without his permission. However, Windham remained a friend of Capote until Capote's death.
Windham also met and befriended such diverse figures as Lincoln Kirstein, Pavel Tchelitchew and Paul Cadmus.
In 1943, after Melton had married, Windham met Sandy Montgomery Campbell, who became his lifelong partner. An actor and publisher of high quality limited editions, Campbell published many of the first editions of Windham's works, until his death in 1988.
Windham's novels include The Dog Star (1950), praised by André Gide and Thomas Mann; The Hero Continues (1960), which was likely based on Williams; Two People (1965); and Tanaquil (1972), based on the life of George Platt Lynes. Lost Friendships, a memoir of his friendship with Capote and Williams, was published in 1987. It has been regarded by some as his best book. Homosexuality is one of many themes treated in his work.
In June 2011 it was announced that Yale University will administer the Donald Windham-Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prizes.
1944 – Tim Kincaid is an American film director, film writer and film producer often credited as Joe Gage or Mac Larson.
Born in Santa Barbara, California, and raised on Catalina Island, Kincaid wrote and directed an influential trilogy of gay films, collectively referred to as either “The Kansas City Trilogy” or “The Working Man Trilogy” in the late 1970s under the name Joe Gage. The films, Kansas City Trucking Co., El Paso Wrecking Corp. and L.A. Tool & Die, were praised for their consistent portrayals of male/male sex occurring between rugged, masculine men who came from blue-collar and rural backgrounds and who related as "equal partners" — avoiding the frequent stereotypes of such men as effeminate inhabitants of urban gay neighborhoods, or who were caught up in a constraining "you play the woman, I’ll be the man" mindset of dominant/submissive roles. While the sex was sometimes rough and occurred in disreputable venues such as truck-station restrooms, the characters in the Gage films often displayed bonds of male camaraderie that went beyond fleeting sexual intercourse, and that more or less entirely ignored the boundaries of "homosexual" and "heterosexual" social identity.
Some of the characters in Gage's films can be clearly understood as "gay identified", while others are just as clearly intended to represent bisexual men who normally inhabit the heterosexual world and may even be happily married. Many other characters defy easy categorization, however. "I never went out of my way to emphasize the butch or straight attributes of my guys--I always sought to portray them as representatives of the average, ordinary, for the most part, working-class citizen." The Trilogy films also were praised for their cinematography, editing, music, sound design and use of natural locations.
In addition to the trilogy, Kincaid directed (also under the name Joe Gage) several notable gay adult films in the early '80s, including Closed Set and Heatstroke. Under the pseudonym Mac Larson, Kincaid directed several-lower budgeted and grittier titles, but these films did not have the same lasting impact as those that he directed under his Joe Gage moniker.Since then, he has written and directed numerous films under contract with the Titan Media Studio, including Back to Barstow, Arcade on Route 9 and the successful Men's Room series which featured a strong emphasis on watersports.
1968 – Eric Fanning became the Acting United States Secretary of the Army when appointed by President Barack Obama on November 3, 2015. Fanning stepped down January 11, 2016 to concentrate on his confirmation, being succeeded in the temporary position by Patrick Murphy. The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee held Fanning's nomination hearing on January 21, 2016, after the lifting of a political hold.
He was the highest ranking openly gay member of the U.S. Department of Defense. He was a member of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund from 2004 to 2007. He favors the adoption by the U.S. military of a policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He has said: "I personally like to see these things in writing and codified." He has expressed a preference for the establishment of such a policy by the Department of Defense rather than the Obama administration: "My view about government is you should always use those resources that are available to you first before you move up to the next level, so I think there are a number of things we can do inside this building for the Department of Defense". He supports allowing openly transgender persons to serve in the military as well.
The United States Senate confirmed Fanning's nomination May 17th 2016 on a unanimous voice vote. Fanning became the 22nd Secretary of the Army, the largest service branch of the U.S. military, and the first openly gay head of any service in the U.S. military. Following Senate approval, Fanning thanked his now-husband Benjamin (Ben) Masri-Cohen for his "patience at home" during the confirmation process.
With this appointment he became the highest ranking openly gay member of the Department of Defense. He was a member of the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund from 2004 to 2007. He favors the adoption by the U.S. military of a policy prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. He has said: "I personally like to see these things in writing and codified." He expressed a preference for the establishment of such a policy by the Department of Defense rather than the Obama administration: "My view about government is you should always use those resources that are available to you first before you move up to the next level, so I think there are a number of things we can do inside this building for the Department of Defense". He supports allowing openly transgender persons to serve in the military as well.
In 2017, the Aerospace Industries Association selected Fanning to become its next President and CEO, succeeding former U.S. Army Lt. General David Melcher in that role.[23] He began his tenure on January 1, 2018.
Fanning and National Gallery of Art budget analyst Ben Masri-Cohen were privately married by Senator Cory Booker on December 19, 2018; days thereafter the couple held a New Year's Eve wedding celebration.
1975 – Born in Singapore, Daniel Kowalski is a former Australian middle- and long-distance swimmer specialising in freestyle events. He competed in the Olympic Games in 200m, 400m and 1,500m individual freestyle events and in the 200m freestyle relay. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, he was the first man in 92 years to earn medals in all of the 200m, 400m and 1500m freestyle events.
Kowalski was part of the world record-setting Australian gold medal 4 x 200m relay team at the 1998 Commonwealth Games. In the 2000 summer Olympics he won a gold medal in the 4 x 200 m freestyle relay (Kowalski was replaced in the final by Ian Thorpe but as a swimmer in the qualifying heat, he shares the gold medal).
Kowalski announced his retirement from competitive swimming in May 2002. He studied sports marketing at Bond University, graduating in 2003. He was named as an assistant swimming coach at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2007, and also won the 2007 Pier to Pub 1.2km open water swim - the largest open water swim in the world - held annually in Lorne, Australia.
In May 2007 Daniel appeared as one of the celebrity performers on the Australian version of the celebrity reality singing competition It Takes Two.
In April 2010 Kowalski announced that he is gay, joining elite male Australian athletes who have announced that they are gay including retired NSW rugby league player Ian Roberts and Olympic gold-medal winning diver Matthew Mitcham. Kowalski says he was inspired to come out by Welsh rugby player Gareth Thomas, who announced in December 2009 that he was gay.
'I felt really compelled to do it because it's very tough to live a closeted existence,' he said. In a statement issued at the time Kowalski talked of years of struggling to come to terms with his sexuality and his fear of the homophobia of professional sports, citing the few gay sportsmen who have spoken out as inspirational.
1984 – Today is the birthday of flamboyant American figure skater Johnny Weir. Born in Coatesville, Pennsylvania, he's a three-time U.S. National Champion (2004-2006), the 2008 Worlds bronze medalist, the 2008 Grand Prix Final bronze medalist and the 2001 World Junior Champion. As of April 2010, Weir is ranked 12th in the world by the International Skating Union. He does not intend to skate competitively in the 2010-11 season and plans to sit out the 2011-2012 season as well.
"I don't think turning figure skating into some kind of X-Games event will promote figure skating to the male population of especially North America, but also the world. This kind of talk has been going around for some time, about making the men more masculine and the women more feminine. But it's not figure skating if you don't have the freedom to express yourself and make something beautiful. That's my goal every time I get new music and get new costumes: to tell a story and to put on a show.
"To butch up figure skating is a ridiculous idea, because there's no putting me in some two-piece pants suit to skate in. [Laughs.] I love my glitter, I love my prettiness, I love getting my hair done before the events, I love putting on makeup because I'm going to be on TV. I know Elvis Stojko was a big proponent for butching up men's skating, but I have a hard time taking suggestions from a man who rocked purple pajamas in the Olympic Games and World championships. In my opinion, anyone who wants to change the actual people who are doing the figure skating can suck it."
- Johnny Weir, talking to Outsports.com.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics, Weir finished sixth overall, with a new personal-best combined score of 238.87.
In his memoir Welcome to My World, published January 2011, Weir officially came out as gay, citing a string of gay youth suicides as one reason for his decision: "With people killing themselves and being scared into the closet, I hope that even just one person can gain strength from my story."
Weir married Victor Voronov (b.1984), a Georgetown Law graduate of Russian Jewish descent, in a December 2011 civil ceremony on New Year's Eve in New York City. Weir said, the "wedding [will be] in the summer, but all the official stuff is done now!" Weir's representative said, "The couple has taken the new surname, Weir-Voronov, but professionally, Johnny will continue to be known as Johnny Weir." In February 2014, Weir filed for a divorce, citing domestic difficulties; the divorce was finalised in early 2015.
2009 – Same-sex sex acts are decriminalized in India, citing that the existing laws violate fundamental rights to personal liberty.The Delhi High Court rules that the existing laws violate fundamental rights to personal liberty and prohibition of discrimination. Before the overturning of this 148-year-old law, so-called homosexual acts were punished with a ten-year prison sentence.
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